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On Tuesday afternoon, Ellen Ochoa M.S. ’81 Ph.D. ’85 — the first Latinx woman in space — spoke about the career path that led her to become an astronaut. During the talk, Ochoa asked her audience to think about how scientific research could factor into their own “system[s] of understanding the world.”

“Why is that man dressed like an astronaut, Dad?” I must have been 10 or so when I asked that question from the back seat of the car while my parents drove by a golf course. The seeming astronaut was a groundskeeper, dressed from head to toe in a white hazmat suit, waving a metal…

“Stanford is the kind of place where you do think about achieving goals that are incredible and you do get encouragement from being around people that set those goals just like you do,” said Ellen Ochoa M.S. ’81 Ph.D. ’85, the first Hispanic woman in space, on Monday night in Cemex Auditorium at an event highlighting the accomplishments of three Stanford alumnae astronauts.